By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
There will be no new subdivisions approved in Mona for up to six months or until decisions are made about the new wastewater collection system currently being studied.
Mona City Council members voted, following a public hearing, with a one nay and four aye vote, to pass: “An ordinance establishing a temporary land use regulation prohibiting any new subdivision approval applications within Mona City during the term of regulation for a period not to exceed six months.”
Harry Newell was the lone negative vote to setting the moratorium.
“I don’t think we need it,” he said.
Karen Fenton, city attorney, though not present, had advised Lynn Ingram, planning commission chairman, that the public hearing only needed to be advertised for 24 hours and that could be in the public notice areas the community had come to know.
Because of the hurry-up nature of the hearing, the newspaper was not used to post the legal notice.
For example, notice was posted at city hall, on a community bulletin board by the post office and at other sites.
The moratorium will apply to all new residential subdivision applications for the entire area within Mona City.
Those subdivision development applications, which have not yet been accepted by the city planning commission, will have to wait the six-moth period, which will put them into September.
“It is proposed that Mona City impose a six-month moratorium on the acceptance of residential subdivision plats to allow time for the final project design and government reimbursement funding of the wastewater system, with up to 75 percent of the project costs eligible for government reimbursement funding,” read one paragraph of the ordinance.
“We have never had specs for a wastewater system,” said Ingram.
The city has not had a wastewater system but each homeowner, instead, has a private septic system. Ingram said it would not be possible to have those specifications until the sewer system study, now under way, is completed.
Travis Higby, P.E., with Forsgren Engineering, the project manager for the wastewater study, reported to Ingram that the information needed to write those specifications would be ready before the six-month moratorium needed to be lifted.
The city has an ordinance that would allow the city to require developers to install a sewer system as part of the subdivision requirements but it cannot be enforced because there are no elevations, pipe sizes or other specifications listed so that developers know what is needed.
So while the city can require the system be stubbed to all lots in a subdivision, there are no specifications there to make it possible for the street installations to take place.
“The moratorium would just be for new development,” said Ingram.
Mona City, according to information in the adopted ordinance, has an estimated population of 1,800 people, and is one of the largest cities in the state without a wastewater collection system or treatment facility with the majority of the city serviced by septic tanks and with some of the older homes still serviced by cesspools.
“By dealing with this challenge now, Mona City will be able to avoid serious groundwater contamination issues in the future and avoid the cost of retro-fitting wastewater collection infrastructure for new subdivision applications,” states the new ordinance.
Mona has been in the process of researching and developing a wastewater collection and water treatment system for over a year and has been working toward that end with the Utah State Division of Water Quality, Forsgren Engineering and the Department of the Army to design a system for the city.
Ingram said the six-month period will be used to finalize proper planning and to obtain reimbursement grant funding authorized by the federal government in order to protect the public interest and to promote organized development by allowing for the implementation of a new wastewater collection system and to adequately manage the process.
Newell said the council did not yet know what system the engineers would propose—a lagoon system or a treatment facility.
However, Ingram said that it would not matter because that would not change the structure of the town. Whether either of the proposals was the one the city decided to embrace, the underground piping system would need to be designed to meet the flows of the geologic footprint of the city.
The underground system was the one the city needed to have specifications for in order for the developers to install the system in each subdivision.
“I think the moratorium is a necessary evil,” said Gordon Anderson, council member.
Council members, Philip Bandley and Frank Riding, both agreed the moratorium needed to be placed.
Cody Adams, council member, asked if there was a way that the developer with property near the city, rather than waiting out the moratorium, could go to the county and receive permission to develop outside city limits.
“There is a moratorium on subdivision development in Juab County right now,” said Ingram.
Newell said he still did not think the moratorium was necessary and determined to vote against it.
“I think it (having a moratorium on subdivisions in Mona) is a very wise step,” said Adams. “I think it is just good planning.”
